Growing Your Business, Many Faces at a Time

If you already have a personal profile on Facebook, you’re hardly alone. So do 500 million others. But do you have a Facebook business page? Previously called a fan page, a Facebook business page is a great place to demonstrate your team’s real estate expertise and, ideally, attract new customers and clients. Following are some tips to leverage your online marketing efforts via Facebook.

While many brokers use their personal profile to expand their sphere of influence and keep “friends” informed of their business activities, the overlap between personal and professional pursuits can be an awkward space. Many of your friends and relatives may not be interested in hearing everything you could tell them about real estate. That doesn’t mean you don’t have valuable insights to share; it’s a matter of choosing the right place to post them.

Seek Popularity

Once you’ve set up your business page, one of your first tasks is getting at least 25 people to like it. This is the benchmark Facebook requires before you can request a unique Facebook address for your page. “It’s important to stake out your space on Facebook, just as you would carve out an address for your website,” says Vaughan Underhay, ABR® at Hitchen, Underhay, & Associates of RE/MAX United, Inc. in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

One option is to convert your personal profile into a business page. Facebook’s migration tool transfers the photo you use on your personal profile, and converts all your friends into people who like your new business page.

Advertising is another option, but offering an attractive incentive will probably work better.

Provide Information Buyers Need

Celeste Barr, ABR®, CRS, e-PRO®, GRI, SFR, of Keller Williams Success Realty in Barrington, Ill., reads everything she can about real estate, including REALTOR® publications, lender newsletters and local library and village communications. Some agents, like husband-and-wife team Christina Ethridge, e-PRO®, PMN and Chuck Ethridge, ABR®, e-PRO® of SKE Realty Group, LLC in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, prefer to create their own content whenever possible, instead of relying on other sources.

Foster Engagement

Content that gets liked is highly preferable to posts that generate no response. Engagement is critical, because every time someone likes or comments on your content, this appears in their news feed and is potentially viewed by all their friends, too.

Track Your Progress

Anyone who is authorized to act as an administrator for your business page can see Facebook Insights, a special feature designed to provide valuable information on the performance of your page.

If you don’t have a Facebook business page, now is the time to get started expanding your professional presence online.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), The Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council (REBAC) is the world’s largest association of real estate professionals focusing specifically on representing the real estate buyer. With more than 30,000 active members, REBAC awards the Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR®) designation to REALTORS® who work directly with buyer-clients.

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